


Aftermath

by supershadsy



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Cyborg Shadow, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 19:50:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12139848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supershadsy/pseuds/supershadsy
Summary: After defeating the Biolizard and Finalhazard, Shadow wakes up in a government hospital, with Sonic waiting for him to wake up. Shadow muses about the circumstances regarding himself, and his new friends around him.





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> I've been tossing around gijinka/humanized Sonic AU ideas for a lifetime it seems, and while I posted it on an ancient headcanon blog I used to run, I thought I might run it through here, for the masses to see. There's a lot going on here that's just touched on, but I hope it reads well regarding connections between all the characters! After all, that's what it's all about.

_LOADING…_

_CHAOS DRIVE…OK_  
RAM…39458 TB  
C:\…ONLINE, 140 ZB AVAILABLE  
OPTICAL DRIVES…OK  


_INITIALIZING… … … …  
_

“Hey, he’s waking up…welcome back, buddy.” 

Blearily, Shadow slowly opened his eyes, adjusting the focus and avoiding staring directly at the harsh, white light above him. His vision showed diagnostics at the far corners, and he mentally shooed them away, leaving a clear field of sight. _I am in a hospital,_ he concluded, lifting his head up just enough to see the gown over his body. There was a pulse monitor clasped over his finger, as well as various wires attached down by his legs. As he went to turn his head to the voice that drew his attention, he was caught short by a tugging at the back of his neck. 

“They’ve got you all hooked up here, don’t they?” 

Shadow reached behind him to feel the wide ribbon cable attached to the back of his neck, fingers drifting over the plastic. A shiver ran down his spine. _Was there any memory loss?_ he thought. _Most of my neurological functions are organic, but if the backup happened to be destroyed--_

“Hey.” 

He whipped around, tugging the cable further. With green eyes and a bright smile, Sonic patted his shoulder. “Everything cool, bud?” he asked. 

Shadow only stared at him--at his bony face and shoulders, the spiked, messy blue hair in desperate need of a cut, the color on his face from both being born an islander and living life in the sun. _Last time I saw you…_

_(”Shadow! Now!” Sonic’s body was surrounded by a golden glow, the Chaos Emeralds surrounding him and funneling him full of energy. “Let’s blast this lizard outta here!”  
_

_Shadow nodded as the heat of Chaos energy coursed through his body, a white silver gleam surrounding him as well. But diagnostics flared in his vision, clouding with red--_

“WARNING: SYSTEM OVERLOAD.” _  
_

_He grit his teeth and crossed his arm to the heavens with Sonic._ Just a little longer, a little longer--

WARNING. WARNING. WARNING. _  
_

_“Ready?!” Sonic shouted, green eyes turned red in his transformation, full of determination. “Chaos--_

_“Control!” they finished together.  
_

WARNING. WARNING. WARNING. _  
_

_In a flash of light, they were warped back into space, the Earth a blue ball below them, but even as Shadow could feel it, he could not see it.  
_

_“Yeah, we did it! …Shadow? Shadow!”  
_

ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. SYSTEM OVERLOAD. ERROR. ERROR. _  
_

_“SHADOW!”  
_

COMMENCING EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN _…)_

He brought himself back to the present to stare down Sonic. “What happened?” he demanded. “I should be dead, who brought me back down? How did _everyone_ get back down?” 

“Whoa, take it easy dude, you just woke up,” Sonic laughed. “I mean, I know you’re all super-android-half-robot dude, but you can relax for once.” 

“I will not relax until I have _answers,”_ Shadow said through grit teeth. 

Sonic shook his head and rubbed a finger under his nose. “Sheesh!” he sighed. “Well, all right. I grabbed you before you could get too far, and ol’ Eggy made sure all of us touched ground.” 

“Dr. Eggman,” Shadow huffed. “How… _generous_ of him.” 

“He was _gonna_ take you to his place, but he was five against one, so we followed Rouge over to this government hospital.” Sonic reached inside his sweatshirt and brought out a shiny, gold metal on a ribbon. “Got to shake hands with the prez, and he even gave both of us these things.” 

“Is Rouge still here?” Shadow asked, vision flicking back toward the door. “Where are the others?” _He always seemed to be surrounded by friends…in fact, it is odd to see him alone.  
_

“She’s uh…getting debriefed? Or somethin’.” Sonic waved his hand. “Said she’d be by after--”

A pop of pink peered out from the side of the door. _Ah. I thought I sensed someone there._ “Hello?” said a high pitched voice. As her fingers grasped the trim, she revealed herself in full--red dress and boots, with a pink bob and freckled face. “Sonic! Shadow!” 

“Ames,” Sonic greeted. He saluted her, but she responded by rushing over and hugging him around the shoulders instead. “Oof, easy--!” 

She did not loosen her grip as she turned to Shadow. “Oh, thank goodness you’re all right!” she said. “I mean, I _knew_ nothing bad could’ve happened, but still…!” 

Shadow found himself chuckling, quietly to himself. _Amy Rose,_ he mused as her eyes shined with tears of relief. _What an enthusiastic, energetic girl. And how earnest as well…_

_(As he looked out upon the vastness of space, as he had done so many times before, Amy tugged his arm. “Shadow, if we don’t do something, this ship is going to crash!” she insisted. “Won’t you help them?”  
_

_Shadow’s head bowed, his voice deep and disengaged. “I hardly see the point,” he muttered. “It’s too late, anyway. Leave me be…”_

_She scoffed, and spun him to face her. “What about everyone down on Earth? It’s not just you! It’s not even just us!” Her lip trembled in passion, and she shook him gently. “All those people…you don’t care about them?”  
_

_He blinked at her, and in the back of his memory, he heard a similar voice say the same thing…)_

Shadow nodded to her. “To be honest, I am not sure of the extent of any damage. My diagnostics seemed to run fine, but otherwise…”

He trailed off at the gently confused looks on their faces. _They do not have to worry about such things._ Still, he muttered to himself as he laid his head back down on the bed. “I thought for sure my Chaos drive would be destroyed…” 

“Does that have to do with the Emeralds?” Sonic asked. 

“Yes. I assume it helps me siphon their energy.” _When we had gathered the Emeralds on the ARK, I did not imagine such a…such a ritual, such a transformation. I was used to the power of one, that helped me warp, but all seven?  
_

_I did not even imagine…_

“Being Super is pretty cool, isn’t it?” Sonic said with a grin, finally pushing Amy away from him as he leaned forward in his seat. “It’s a huge rush, even if it doesn’t happen all the time. Usually those now-or-never sorta deals.”

“Super…” Shadow slowly raised his arms and hands into his view, palms facing toward him. Gold bands wrapped around his wrists, flush with his skin. _That transformation was something…otherworldly. I may be a miracle of science, modern or otherwise, but that was…that was…_

“It was amazing…!” Amy exclaimed in awe. “I wish I could turn Super like that, and fly around in space.”

“Only…a select few can preform such a feat?” Shadow asked. 

“Yeah, I guess so,” Sonic replied. “I’ve done it a few times, so I’m your go-to guy, but I wanna say Knux has done it once? Or twice? Something like that…”

“What?!” A burly, dark-skinned man with red dreadlocks suddenly burst in the entryway. Sonic and Amy jumped, and while his entrance also gave Shadow a jolt, he chose not to show it. “What are you saying about me?” 

“Only good things, pal,” Sonic replied with a wink. “Dude, I thought you took Tails home.”

“I did,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m here to come get you.”

“Yeah, he was waiting outside when I got here,” Amy added.

“Really? Dude, I told you, I wanted to see if Shad was gonna make it,” Sonic said, then grinned wildly. “Or are you here to see your new girlfriend?” 

Knuckles’ face contorted immensely, tilting his head back. “Sh-she’s not!”

“Dude, I can’t believe you’re dumping me for her. It’s the voice, isn’t it?”

_“That’s not even how it is!”_

Sonic and Amy crowed with laughter, but the excess noise made Shadow grimace. _My head…_ He rubbed his forehead. _I will need further checks to make sure everything is running smoothly. Although, I do not know who will be able to properly see to my maintenance. I suspect being in a government facility like this is as good as any, but if there was one thing that the doctor had going for him, it was a well stocked laboratory. Even if it was more geared toward machines…_

He glanced back toward the other three, now chattering among themselves, even as Knuckles was still flush in the face. _Still…it does not explain the “Super” transformation in its entirety. Sonic is not an ordinary person, despite his claims to be just “a guy who loves adventure”._ Shadow gazed at Sonic in particular. _He is as fast as the wind, as free as it, and lives with such a carefree air. Even when faced with doom and danger, he treats it like another challenge, just another day.  
_

_You possess something I do not have…or if I do have it, it is only a shadow of the power, the radiance you possess.  
_

_Me, I hardly know anything about myself, after all that has happened. With my backup drive purged and wiped by Doctor Eggman, who is to say…what is true, or what is real in my own mind.  
_

_I am not “merely” human, but at times like these, I certainly feel like it.  
_

He found Sonic staring directly at him, and he shook his head. “My apologies,” he mumbled, feeling heat in his own face.

“Nah, no worries,” Sonic replied. “Got a lot on your mind, huh? A lot’s happened lately.” 

“It certainly has.” Shadow tried to sit up, but was caught once again by the ribbon cable at the back of his neck. He grunted and tried to follow the cable back. “Would you see what this cable is connected to? Please…”

Sonic jumped up and rushed around the hospital bed. “Uh, looks like it’s connected to another thingy, down into this computer down here.” 

_Maybe I should have waited for a nurse, or even Rouge to come down._ Shadow grimaced. “What is on it?” 

“Uhhh…”

Amy wandered back behind Sonic at his unconvincing response. “Let me see,” she said. After a pause, uncertainty bled into her reply. “It looks like some kind of…system screen? There are a lot of garbled characters on here…”

“Hmph,” Shadow grunted. “If they thought they could run their _own_ diagnostics on an average computer, they were mistaken…” He crossed his arms over the thin, scratchy hospital blanket. “Fine, do not fuss with it. I shall have to wait until someone else more qualified can eject it.” 

“You know, I haven’t seen one of those cables in a long time. They’re really old,” Amy commented as she walked back around. “It’s connected to a USB adapter to the computer.” 

“I was…er, created over fifty years ago. Technology was different then,” he replied. 

“Still, I’ve never met a dude who had a plug-in in the back of his head,” Sonic chuckled. “Maybe Metal did, though…” 

“Metal was a full robot,” Knuckles grunted in reply. 

“Still,” Sonic dismissed with a wave of his hand. “You’re pretty neat, Shad, you know that?” 

Shadow opened his mouth, then shut it again without speaking. “Ah,” he said finally. “That is…one way to put it.” 

The room fell silent except for the whirring of the hospital machines, as if everyone were holding their breath. “Sonic…” Shadow said slowly. “And to you too, Amy, and Knuckles…” He paused for a moment, then took a deep breath. “Thank you.” 

Shadow’s heart pounded in his ears, but his shoulders relaxed as Sonic laughed softly, as Amy offered him a sunny smile, and Knuckles nodded to him. _These people…_

_(”You haven’t been down there, have you?” Maria asked, hands plastered to the window of the ARK. “I was just a baby, so I don’t remember much…but I remember the trees, the sky, the air…oh, and the people!”  
_

_“People?” Shadow replied._

_“Of course! Not just the doctors, but just…everyone.” She sighed wistfully. “Someday, when I get better, I’m going to become a doctor, just like Grandfather, and help everyone down there.” She turned to look up at him, thin fair hair framing her thin face. “Will you come with me?”  
_

_As she took his hand in hers, he found himself nodding…)_

_…they are wonderful. Just as you imagined.  
_

The sound of heels clicked down from the hallway, and Rouge entered without fanfare, clapping her hands together. She was in a modest military uniform, although it was still buttoned down to the chest. “Okay boys, break it up,” she said. She brushed past Knuckles, making a point to make contact, and brisked behind Sonic and Amy to the computer at the head of the bed. “Oops, and girl.” 

“Thank you,” Amy said, her nose in the air. 

“Oh, what a mess this is,” she sighed to herself as she squatted down at the computer. “I knew this was a silly idea…”

Keys clicked behind Shadow, and after a moment, Rouge stood back up and yanked the ribbon cable out of the back of his head. Shadow winced, rubbing the port and sat up “Hmph, be careful…” 

“Sorry, grump,” Rouge said, removing the pulse monitor from his finger. “We’ve gotta go. I’ve got your clothes upstairs, and we’ve got a meeting with the President and head commander of GUN.” 

“So you’re just gonna yank him outta bed like that?” Sonic said. “Jeez, we didn’t even know he was gonna make it out in one piece!” 

“Oh, he’s fine, see?” Rouge pinched his cheek with her long, carefully manicured nails, much to Shadow’s dismay. “Mr. Ultimate here wouldn’t let a silly thing like that get his way, would he?” 

“Rouge,” Shadow sighed.

“Still as pouty as ever,” she said with a giggle. “Anyway, after all the trouble you’ve caused, you’ve got to make your case that you’re not going to go rogue on us, or else they’ll lock you up.” 

“I suppose.” _Or experiment on me. But, they may do that anyway, now, won’t they? The military always wanted their hand in my creation, and now…they may finally get it._ Shadow clenched his fists at his side. _I have a purpose, now. I will not merely be…used any longer._ “If that is what needs to be done, than I shall attend to it.” 

“Cool!” Sonic slapped his knees and paced around, fluttering from Amy’s side to Knuckles’. “Good to have you with us, Shad! Come visit me ‘n Tails over in the Mystic Ruins sometime, you hear?” He skipped around behind Knuckles and out into the doorway. “Big workshop, can’t miss it! Okay, are we going, guys? C’mon, let’s roll!” 

Sonic disappeared in a flash, and Knuckles rolled his eyes. “Better catch up,” he said. He made eye contact with Rouge, although he could not hold it for long. “Later?” 

“Later, handsome,” Rouge replied with a wink, then blew him a kiss. Knuckles scrunched his face, then turned and exited. 

“Sonic? Hey, wait up!” Amy vacated just as quickly, darting past Knuckles and dashing down the hall to try and catch up with the blur of blue down the hall. 

Shadow, in the meantime, swung his feet around the hospital gurney and stood up, rolling his shoulders back. With the company gone, Rouge surveyed him more carefully. “Everything okay?” she asked quietly.

He focused on breathing evenly. “Yes,” he said. “Or, it will be.”


End file.
